People say us cats have it easy, but it's not all sunshine and catnip. I mean, someone's got to maintain unbroken eye contact while you're in the bath.

So after a long hard day my human better bring me a delicious bowl of whiskers. I'm talking to you Kevin. It's

almost per o'clock. Don't let me down.

Wiskers per moor. And the The Welcome back everyone to 1001 Classic Short Stories and tales. This is your host John Hagdorn. Today, Rumpelstilkin and other grim tales.

Wilhelm Grimm and his older brother Jacob studied German folklore and oral traditions

publishing a collection of stories eventually known as Grimm's fairy tales

which includes narratives like Rumpel still skin and Little Red Riding Hood. Several of the brothers tales have been adapted

into successful TV shows and movies. Although they're very famous for sharing the classic tales bearing

their name, they actually didn't write them. They just

collected them and published them. The stories existed long before the two men were

born in Germany in the mid-1780s. The fairy tales were part of a rich oral tradition passed down from generation

to generation, often by women seeking to pass the time during household chores. But as

industrialization took root, local traditions changed and scholars, like Jacob and

Wilhelm, began a quest to save the stories from extinction. They interviewed relatives and

friends collecting whatever tales they could, sometimes embellishing them,

although they insisted they did not.

In 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm published the stories as part of a collection titled

Nursery and Household Tales

are what is now referred to as Grimm's Fairy Tales.

We have a collection of those stories for you here today,

starting with Rble still skin.

There was once a Miller who was poor, but he had one beautiful daughter. It happened one day that he came to speak with the king,

...